The present invention relates to a facsimile transceiver equipped with a broadcasting feature, and more particularly to a facsimile transceiver equipped with a broadcasting feature wherein transmission data is temporarily stored in a memory and thereafter the data is successively transmitted to a plurality of destinations.
Generally in a facsimile transceiver with a broadcasting feature, read-out transmission data is subjected to data compression to store it in a memory and thereafter, the data in the memory is successively read and transmitted. In an alternative method, readout data may not be subjected to data compression to store it in a memory. In this case, however, a memory capacity as large as about ten times is required as compared with that under data compression. Thus, this method is not practical and cannot be employed.
Facsimile transceivers equipped with a broadcasting feature as above are disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publications Nos. 204377/84 and 32473/85 and else.
The problems associated with the prior art facsimile transceiver equipped with a broadcasting feature are that all of the various types of facsimile transceivers now available are not usable as broadcasting reception terminals.
There are various types of facsimile transceives now available, such as those operating under G3, G2, FM6 or other mode. Even G3 facsimile transceivers have various functions regarding such as a record paper size (A4, B4), a coding mode (Modified Huffman, Modified Read), a scanning resolution (3.85 line/mm, 7.5 line,/mm), a minimum transmission time (5 msec, 10 msec, 20 msec, 40 msec and so on).
According to the prior art, data with its redundant codes removed is compressed to store it in a memory and thereafter the stored data is read and transmitted. Therefore, only G3 type facsimile transceivers can serve as broadcasting reception terminals. Furthermore, depending on the selection of various modes (record paper size, coding mode, scanning resolution, minimum transmission time), some of G3 facsimile transceivers cannot be used as broadcasting reception terminals.
The facsimile transceiver of the type (disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 32473/85) is provided with a document paper size detector for outputting information regarding a document size to be broadcast and a terminal function storage section for storing terminal information such as a compression mode for each destination. Based on the information from the document paper-size detector and the terminal function storage section, transmission data can be stored and transmitted in the mode (lowest level function) common to all the destinations even if the functions of the destinations to which data is transmitted are different from each other. With such an arrangement, it is possible to use any type of G3 facsimile transceivers as broadcasting reception terminals. However, for example, in case that a B4 document is to be transmitted and there are both B4 size and A4 size G3 facsimile transceivers at the broadcasting destination side, transmission data is reduced from B4 to A4 at a scanning resolution converter (or only the portion of A4 size within B4 size is used at the same scale) and thereafter, the redundant codes are removed therefrom at an information compression section to store it in a memory. The stored transmission data is successively read and transmitted via a modem over a telephone line. Therefore, in spite of use of a B4 size G3 facsimile transceiver at a broadcasting reception terminal, the document is recorded at the reduced scale of A4 (or corresponding A4 dimension of the same scale).
In other words, it cannot be expected to transmit a B4 document and record it at the same scale even when and the destination has a B4 size G3 facsimile transceiver, in spite of the fact that such transmission and recording can be effected in the case of one-to-one communication (not broadcasting communication).